Privacy Policy

Scope

BLS INTERNATIONAL (hereinafter referred to as 'BLS INTERNATIONAL') is an outsourced partner of Diplomatic Missions across globe, and is authorized to receive applications for various categories of visa, permit and travel document and perform administrative and non-judgmental tasks/functions related to the same, as per the mandate of concerned Diplomatic Missions. By virtue of processing these applications, BLS INTERNATIONAL acts as a data processor and the respective Diplomatic Mission/s are the data controller. This Privacy Policy describes how BLS INTERNATIONAL collects, uses, discloses and manages personal information related to individuals (hereinafter referred to as "Applicant/s") applying for visas and permits, and makes available to relevant authorities for the purpose detailed below.

Such personal information may be collected, used or disclosed in order to facilitate the processing of visa application(s) and/or request(s) including but not limited to for the following purposes:

Process applications received for requests for various categories of visa, permit and travel documents etc. and perform various tasks/ functions related thereto;

Respond to various inquiries on the visa application submission process in general.

Respond to various inquiries regarding status of application made with BLS.

INTERNATIONAL ;
Provide/ offer any other services as per requirements of the respective Governments /Diplomatic Missions.

Provision of personal information is voluntary. Please note, however, that a refusal to provide personal information may limit or affect ability of BLS INTERNATIONAL to provide the requested services.

As mandated by the Diplomatic Missions, BLS INTERNATIONAL may (by itself of through third party service providers/ vendors) provide various facilities for inquiries related visa application process in general and/ or status of visa applications submitted through BLS INTERNATIONAL such as call center, online tracking, e-mail etc.

Inquiry about general visa application process:
Users making inquiries as regards visa application process in general, need not provide any personal information.

Inquiry about status of submitted visa application/s:
Users making inquiries as regards status of visa application submitted through BLS INTERNATIONAL can quote application reference number to receive an update on the status of their visa, permit or travel document applications.
The users may be requested to provide personal information such as given name or family name or date of birth or phone number or street address or email address or application date etc. or combination of such information for verification/ authentication purposes.

Users making inquiries as regards visa application process however should not ask or reveal the passport number or personal information while interacting via email with BLS INTERNATIONAL and/or its third party service providers/ vendors. Instead use of application reference number is recommended. BLS INTERNATIONAL shall not be obliged to respond to e-mails containing personal information. In case any personal information is disclosed, the same shall be at the sole risk of the Users/ applicants and BLS INTERNATIONAL will not be in any manner responsible for any events of misuse etc.

For the quality control purposes the interactions with users may be recorded. In such cases the users will be informed of this practice and purpose at the start of any such interaction. Unless a different requirement is mandated by the respective Diplomatic Missions, such recordings will be purged after a period of 30 days from the date of such interactions.

Interview Scheduling:

Certain Diplomatic Missions may require the Applicant’s to attend for personal interview. Applicants will be required to provide their application reference number and/or certain personal information such as family name, given name, date of birth, phone number, street address, email address, application date, and passport number for purpose of scheduling interviews.
All such information, posted, furnished and submitted by the Applicants while scheduling an interview appointment is converted into such formats as may be required and communicated to the respective Diplomatic Mission having jurisdiction to receive such applications.
Certain data and information related to visa applications received by BLS INTERNATIONAL is presently stored hosted at data centers.

Disclosures of Personal Information:

BLS INTERNATIONAL will not trade, rent or sell personal information of the Applicants. BLS INTERNATIONAL does disclose or otherwise transfer Personal Information of the Applicants, except as otherwise set out herein. Personal Information will be used only for the purposes of providing services and performing its various obligations.

However BLS INTERNATIONAL may need to disclose and share Personal Information when it is necessary to comply with a court order, any on-going judicial proceeding, or other legal, statutory or regulatory process served on BLS INTERNATIONAL or to exercise the legal rights or defend against legal claims, criminal investigations, judicial matters or in prevention, investigation, detection, prosecution of criminal activities or matters related to national security.

Service Provider Arrangements: BLS INTERNATIONAL may disclose (or otherwise make available) personal information to third party service providers providing services like courier delivery, SMS, call center services. These third party service providers are provided with such information they need to perform their designated functions and are not authorized to use or disclose personal information for their own purposes. For example, where the visa applicant has opted for courier service, BLS INTERNATIONAL will disclose certain Personal data such as name, address, phone number to the third party courier service providers. However personal information will not be shared with service provider/s for SMS service/s. Such third party service providers are also required to adhere to security & privacy requirements as outlined by BLS INTERNATIONAL.

Cookies

Cookies are files or pieces of information that may be stored on system or internet enabled devices of the User, when the User visits the website/s of BLS INTERNATIONAL. BLS INTERNATIONAL uses cookies to make the website/s simpler to use. BLS INTERNATIONAL cannot identify the User personally from this information.

BLS INTERNATIONAL website offers certain features that are only available through the use of cookies.

The cookies help website users and maintain their signed-in status.

Most cookies are "session cookies," meaning that they are automatically deleted from website user’s hard drive at the end of a session when the applicant/user exits the website. However “Persistent cookies” remain in place across multiple visits to our websites.

Applicant/ website user may encounter cookies from any links of third parties on certain pages of the website that BLS INTERNATIONAL does not control.

Once a User accesses the websites of BLS INTERNATIONAL, User consents to use of cookies by BLS INTERNATIONAL. If User does not agree to use of cookies, User should not use website/s of BLS INTERNATIONAL. If the cookies are disabled, it may impact the User experience on website/s of BLS INTERNATIONAL.

SPAM

BLS INTERNATIONAL does not tolerate spam.

BLS INTERNATIONAL website/s or communication tools shall not be used to send spam or otherwise send content that would violate the terms and conditions of BLS INTERNATIONAL user agreement.

BLS INTERNATIONAL filters and automatically scans messages for viruses and other illegal or prohibited content before they are sent.

To report any issues related to spam or spoof emails to BLS INTERNATIONAL, please address e-mails to communications@blsinternational.com

BLS INTERNATIONAL does not permanently store email messages sent to or by it through various formats. BLS INTERNATIONAL does not rent or sell any email addresses to third parties.

A user/users is/are not licensed, permitted, expected to add, modify, deface, hack, misuse or abuse BLS INTERNATIONAL ’ website or the contents therein.

Security

BLS INTERNATIONAL has implemented measures designed to help protect personal information in its custody and control. BLS INTERNATIONAL maintains reasonable administrative, technical, physical and organizational safeguards in an effort to protect personal information in its custody and control. However BLS INTERNATIONAL shall not be liable for unlawful access, use, modification, destruction, destruction or interceptions by unauthorized persons.

Retention & Destruction of Personal Information:

Application packages collected from Applicants will not be copied or retained by BLS INTERNATIONAL . Unless otherwise mandated by the concerned Diplomatic Mission, any other paper, hard copies, forms or other records containing personal information will be destroyed by a secure shredding process within thirty (30) days of a passport’s return to an applicant.

For the purposes of assisting the Applicants should they contact BLS INTERNATIONAL with follow-up queries, Applicant personal information may be retained in electronic form, after passport and/or documents have been returned to the Applicants, for a maximum of thirty (30) days or for such period as specified by the respective Governments/ Diplomatic Missions.

BLS INTERNATIONAL performs secure disposal or destruction of personal information on the equipment or devices used for storing personal information. When disposing of equipment or devices used for storing personal information (such as filing cabinets, computers, diskettes, and audio tapes), BLS INTERNATIONAL takes appropriate measures such as to removal or deletion of any stored information to prevent access by unauthorized parties.

Legal

BLS INTERNATIONAL and its third party service providers/ vendors may provide personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry pursuant to contravention of law / order or to an investigative body or as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law BLS INTERNATIONAL may also disclose personal information where necessary for the establishment, exercise or a defense of legal claims, or as otherwise permitted by law.

Third Party Links

BLS INTERNATIONAL website may contain links to other/ third party sites promoting various products and/or services that BLS INTERNATIONAL does not own or operate. These links to websites are in nature of paid advertising are not verified by BLS INTERNATIONAL. These links are provided for convenience access to these links is voluntary and does not indicate that BLS INTERNATIONAL endorses or is associated with any of these other third party websites. Users are requested to use their own discretion which dealing with these websites and neither BLS INTERNATIONAL nor its officers, employees, agents shall have any responsibility or liability of any nature whatsoever for these other third party websites or any information contained in them.

These linked websites have their own separate and independent privacy statements, notices and terms of use, which Users are recommended to carefully review the same. BLS INTERNATIONAL does not have any control over such third party websites, and therefore shall have no liability or responsibility their personal information practices.

To Personal Information

Please note that disclosure of personal information is voluntary. The Applicants / Users disclosing personal information shall be deemed to have read and understood this Privacy Policy and consents to use and disclosure of the personal information as provided in this Privacy Policy. The Applicants / Users have right to withdraw their consent prior to further disclosure of the personal information by BLS INTERNATIONAL to the Diplomatic Missions / Governments and/ or relevant Visa Offices or other third parties.

Applicants have right to their personal information provided by them. Users may request access to their personal information by writing an email to the Info email ID mentioned on the “Contact Us” page with subject line as “Subject Access Request”. This request will be forwarded to the respective Governments Diplomatic Missions since they are the data controllers and further action will be taken by BLS INTERNATIONAL based on the directions received by the respective Governments Diplomatic Missions.

BLS INTERNATIONAL shall not be responsible to ascertain authenticity or accuracy of the information provided by the Applicant. It shall be the duty of the Applicant to ensure that the information provided to BLS INTERNATIONAL is accurate, complete and upto date.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

Please be advised that the Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time and Users/ Applicants to regularly visit BLS INTERNATIONAL website to access the latest policy statement.

Contact Us

For any questions about this Privacy Policy or the practices described herein, please write to privacy@blsinternational.com for more information.